FDA Food Safety and Security Monitoring Project (U18) Grant Proposal RFA-FD-10-003 CFDA93.48 Project Summary This grant proposal from the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) is in response to a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for Federal assistance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) as referenced above. The goal of this proposal is to develop and improve the capability of FERN to respond to chemical emergencies in food and to enhance surveillance of food chemistry testing. The purpose of this application from the ODA Consumer Analytical Laboratory is to enhance the capabilities and capacities of FERN Chemical Laboratories in the following instrumental areas of testing: (1) Analysis of food or food products by (a) Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and (b) Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS); to screen and identify toxic substances and unknown compounds. (2) Analysis of food and food products by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) to screen and identify heavy metals and toxic elements. (3) Analysis of food or food products by Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) to screen and identify unknown toxins. This proposal addresses the four key areas the FDA has identified as critical and provides detailed and in-depth information from ODA's Consumer Analytical Laboratory about personnel qualifications, facilities, support services, quality assurance, management practices and security arrangements. The proposal also describes progress CAL has made in providing support to the FERN Chemistry Program to date. This grant application for the FDA Food Safety and Security Monitoring Project (U18) also provides information about the participation of ODA's Consumer Analytical Laboratory in various national and international Proficiency Testing (PT) programs as well as ISO-17025:2005 laboratory accreditation related activities. The project narrative provides detailed information to address the complementary needs of the FDA and shows our thorough commitment to the FERN Chemistry Program.